2026-05-18 13:03:56

Elon Musk believes fully self-driving cars will become increasingly common across the United States later this year as Tesla expands its autonomous vehicle services.

Speaking via video link at the Smart Mobility Summit in Tel Aviv on Monday (18.05.26), Musk said self-driving vehicles without human safety monitors were already operating in Texas and would soon spread nationwide.

The world’s richest man explained: “There ‌were self-driving cars operating in Texas without safety monitors and that would expand nationwide this year.”

Tesla currently operates robotaxi services in Austin, Dallas and Houston as the company continues pushing its autonomous driving ambitions.

However, Reuters journalists who tested the service reported issues including long waiting times, limited vehicle availability and drop-off locations far from passengers’ intended destinations.

Tesla also faces ongoing scrutiny over safety concerns involving its vehicles and autonomous systems.

This month, the company recalled more than 218,000 vehicles in the US due to delayed rearview camera images that regulators warned could increase crash risks.

Meanwhile, Waymo, owned by Alphabet, recently recalled around 3,800 robotaxis after identifying a risk that vehicles could enter flooded roads on higher-speed routes.

Despite criticism and previous delays to his autonomous driving promises, Musk remains confident self-driving technology will dominate transport within the next decade.

He said: “Five years from now and certainly 10 years from now … probably 90 per cent of all distance driven will be driven by the AI in a self-driving car.

“So overwhelmingly, it’ll be quite a niche thing in 10 years to actually be driving your own car.”

Musk also discussed several other technology projects during the summit, including developments at SpaceX and Neuralink.

He said SpaceX was close to developing fully reusable rocket launch systems, which he described as a major turning point for human space travel.

Musk said: “When ⁠that technology is developed, that will be a fork in the road to human history, where we can become a space-bearing civilisation.”

The Tesla chief also claimed Neuralink would carry out its first Blindsight brain implant later this year to help restore vision to blind patients, while humanoid robots could become “pretty much everywhere” within a decade.

Visit Bang Premier (main website)